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Once we wanted to belong to a more prestigious social class than we actually did. Apparently, that’s no longer the case

The latest British Social Attitudes survey reveals an apparent paradox.
Namely, that while 60 per cent of Britons are now, according to the accepted
definition, middle class by occupation, 60 per cent of us still consider
ourselves working class. That is (please excuse the momentary lapse into
Marxist terminology), in objective terms, 60 per cent of the population
belongs to the bourgeoisie, yet subjectively, 60 per cent of that same
population identifies itself as a member of the proletariat. What’s going on?

I admit it’s puzzling. Indeed, such statistics appear to fly in the face of
what we think we